Sleeping Player (Project Chrysalis Book 3) by John Gold (highly illogical behavior .txt) 📗

Earth Magic. And mages who can control it are highly valued! There’s always some war or other going on, and somebody has to repair buildings and protect them from being destroyed. There are also spells that change the composition of soil: swamp, quagmire, pound of sand, and stone, for example.”

A water whip and an ice arrow appear in the speaker’s hands.

“Mages who lay siege to fortresses love Water Magic. They can send water or fog down on their enemies, or even freeze the water under their feet. Water shields are best for neutralizing all kinds of Fire Magic.”

The speaker summons the Fire and Air elementals.

“All elemental mages use these elementals to protect themselves against close-combat enemies. Fire is preferred by battle mages for its universality, what with fire balls, flames, fire walls, fire storms, and fire spears. Seven out of every ten of you will become fire mages,” the professor laughs. “But let’s not talk about that. The Air elemental can be just as destructive as Fire Magic. For example, take wind blade, air fist, air hammer, hovering, tornadoes, lightning, air stream, and the very rare tray sphere. There are other spells, too, like silence, air cocoon, heavy bell…”

Some of the people there perk up. One red-haired guy even raises his hand and asks a question.

“What was that one about the tray sphere? Why is it so rare?”

“Well, put it this way. If I were to take all the air in this room and compress it until it was the size of my fist,” the lecturer replies, walking over to the guy and showing him his clenched fist, “and then let it go…” A light breeze hits the student. “If I did that, the shock wave would be incredibly powerful, often powerful enough to kill me, too. It’s kind of like a fire ball, only a hundred times more powerful and does area damage. The tray sphere is also called the last strike occasionally, at least, when the mage is prepared to die.”

“Why can’t you just throw the sphere at your opponent and hide?”

“The sphere is only stable when it’s within your aura. As soon as it leaves, it explodes.”

The guy fell silent, and I wondered what would happen if the attack used the air in the whole building, and not just the auditorium. A new note about boosting my physical damage and learning that tray sphere appears in my memory… Last strike? We’ll see about that.

Then, we move on to the three most interesting primary elements.

“Life Magic lets you heal all living things. For the elementals, you need to recharge your energy or heal using Mind Magic. Life Magic just stimulates natural processes and closes wounds, creating an aura of life at low concentrations and targeted healing at high concentrations. Druids also use this magic to stimulate plant growth. Often times, Life Magic is chosen by fist fighters.” The other students’ faces express their confusion, while I know exactly what he’s talking about. “That’s because life mages use their strength to increase their physical strength. Just imagine that the damage you do with your fist can be multiplied by ten—you break bones, tear muscles and ligaments, burst blood vessels. That can all happen when you amplify your body by a factor of ten, but, at the same time, your body heals itself. Fighters like that spend mana along with their survivability.”

A deathly quiet fell over the room. Everyone was thinking about the benefits of choosing the path of a light mage, although a second later, that turned to remembering how mages become mages because they like fighting at range.

“Do master swordsmen do that, too?”

“No, they improve their reactions and stamina, their joint mobility, how well their ligaments work, and their overall agility. The maximum they can squeeze out is double agility and strength. The other changes are harder to calculate.”

“Thanks.”

“After the general course on magic theory, there will be a lecture in this auditorium on body modification for mages. Anyone who would like to listen in is welcome to stay. But in the meantime, let’s keep going. I already mentioned what Life Magic can do in battle and for healing, so let’s move on to Mind Magic. This is where we work with the mental body. Everything in the astral, lifting and placing curses and buffs, finding people, working with spirits, and much more.” I perk up when he mentions finding people. “Let me just tell you that life mages who modify their bodies need to be equally proficient with both their physical body and their mental body. Mind mages are also used to create familiars, spirit totems, and other similar things. But don’t think that mind mages just have a support role—they have mental spears, stunning, and spirit shields, and they can summon spirits and do other things to kill.”

The redhead interrupts again. He’s showing off for the girl next to him—I can see them making eyes at each other. No, she’s just using him!

“Could you talk about familiars?”

“Interrupt me one more time, and you’ll find out the answer at the next seminar. Familiars are the topic of lectures given on Tuesdays by Vaziri Anu, the director of the mind mage department. He teaches them.”

“I’m sorry.” The girl’s embarrassment and grateful glance were a worthy reward for the kid.

I catch myself noticing that I’m thinking very differently. Occasionally, when I look at a girl, I feel a sexual attraction, but a couple of seconds later it turns to apathy and indifference.

That behavior is characteristic of patients with artificially corrected hormonal fields. A passage from one of the medical books I’ve read pops into my mind. Sure, just like other adult men, I have sexual needs, though the med capsule artificially corrects them, something I appreciate. I have no idea how my damaged brain would react to emotional surges and experiences like that.

I’ve been tapping